After losing the first T20I against the hosts India at Eden Gardens on Sunday night, the Windies T20I skipper Carlos Brathwaite felt that they didn’t apply themselves.

Windies were sent back to bat first by the Indian captain Rohit Sharma and the visitors were restricted to 109/8 at the end of 20 overs. In reply, Indian top-order batsmen also lost their quick wickets but Dinesh Karthik and debutant Krunal Pandya guided the hosts to a victory at the end.

At the end of the game, Brathwaite said, “I don’t think we applied ourselves. We were either too defensive or too attacking. We could’ve scored 130-140, which would’ve been a winning total, had we kept some wickets for the back end. As young bunch of guys, we want to be fearless. We have our chance to do something for West Indies, we have a task to get to the standards where we should be.”

Brathwaite praised the debutant right-arm pacer Oshane Thomas. Before this T20I debut, the 21-year-old Thomas made his international cricket debut during the ODI series in this tour. In the first T20I, while the skipper had a bowling figure of 4-1-11-2, Thomas also had an impressive bowling figure of 4-0-21-2.

The Windies skipper is very optimistic on Thomas who has impressed in this tour. Brathwaite said that now the Windies has the responsibility to help him to become another Joel Garner or Michael Holding like pacers.

Brathwaite said, “Don’t know his long-term plans, had a few chats with him and he’s in the best place he could be. He understands the opportunities he has, he has to continue to get fitter and stronger. The world is at his feet, it’s for West Indies to help him become another Joel Garner or Michael Holding.”

Trailing the three-match T20I series by the 1-0 margin, Windies will play the second T20I of the series on Tuesday (November 6) at Ekana International Cricket Stadium (Lucknow).